Morphometric analysis in cytologic evaluation of papillary thyroid carcinoma.

OBJECTIVE To compare the morphometric features of papillary carcinomas with follicular neoplasias and benign lesions and to determine the potential role of nuclear morphometric features in their differential diagnosis. STUDY DESIGN Morphometric features were investigated in the cytologic samples of 64 cases, including 27 benign lesions, 6 follicular neoplasias and 31 papillary carcinomas. We analyzed 6 morphometric parameters: nuclear area, nuclear perimeter, maximum diameter (MaxD), minimum diameter (MinD), form factor and ratio of MaxD/MinD. RESULTS There were no significant differences between the benign lesion and follicular neoplasia groups for any nuclear parameters. However, between benign lesions and papillary carcinomas, there were significant differences for all parameters, except for form factor. Between follicular neoplasms and papillary carcinomas, only the MaxD/MinD ratio was significantly different. CONCLUSION The results of this study indicate that the ratio of MaxD/MinD is a distinct nuclear morphometric feature for distinguishing papillary carcinoma from other thyroid lesions, and it may be employed with other cytologic criteria in diagnosing problematic cases.